What Mike Rizzo Should Be Saying About The Juan Soto Situation
I thought it would be a fun idea to play the role of Mike Rizzo for a day. It’s no secret that I believe I would run laps around a majority of the general managers in any given sport. I thought this would be a cool idea because realistically, I’m not sure how the Nationals could handle this Juan Soto situation worse. Today I will serve as Rizzo’s PR guy for what he really should be saying in regards to Soto.
Sitting back with his hands tied and doing nothing is the WRONG approach.
The first thing I would have done when the news leaked that Soto rejected the Nationals’ $440 million offer is put out a statement directly to the media through the team account. Normally I wouldn’t go public about contract talks. In this situation, I believe that bridge has to be crossed for obvious reasons.
“Today as you may have heard, we were unable to reach a contract extension for Juan Soto after his representation rejected a 15-year proposal for $440 million that would have made him a Washington National for essentially the remainder of his career.
Juan is a World Series champion and the face of our franchise. Our offer to Juan represents what would have been the largest contract in MLB history. Keeping Juan in Washington for the rest of his career is our number one priority internally.
Truthfully, it’s not really the years or dollar amount for us. We just want to do right by the player and we believe our offer reflects that belief. We are now in a situation where we could be forced to do the unthinkable and trade who we believe is the best player in baseball. It’s something that would break our hearts and is the last thing we want to put our beloved fan base through.
Juan has been with the organization since he was 16 years old. These contract negotiations are life changing moments. The last thing we want to do is uproot his family and send them to another city. We want to keep Juan here forever.
The bottom line is Juan chose Scott Boras to represent him. There is no negotiating with Scott. He encourages all of his players to test free agency even if it means they lose money in the end. He has cost several of his players millions upon millions because of greed. We can use Michael Conforto as an example since he’s currently a free agent. Conforto was offered life-changing money by the Mets. Instead, Scott does what Scott does; fights for every last penny and now his client is injured without a contract.
It’s called a negotiation for a reason. That doesn’t exist in Scott’s world. It’s his way or no way. Even when you offer his client the world, he still says no because testing free agency is the only thing he’s ever interested in regardless of what the offer is. There is a reason why NFL, NBA, and NHL free agency is mostly wrapped up in a week. With Scott, often times it takes his client four months into free agency to sign which can’t be found in any other sports league.
If Juan wants to be a Washington National, we can make that happen by offering him a record setting extension. If Juan wants to continue to be brainwashed by that Scott, we can’t guarantee Juan will be part of our organization long term.
Sincerely, Mike Rizzo.
I’d love to hear comments on this. It’s just my belief that sitting there with your hands tied behind your back is a mistake. You have to get out in front of this thing. Until one of these general managers stands up to Scott Boras, this thing is going to keep happening. That’s what I would say and I would make it public as hell so Juan understands the decision he is making. This isn’t about trust. This is about an agent that has undermined the sport. I’d love to see what others think but this is how I would handle it.
